Elvis Presley

Elvis Presley, "the king", was the first big scam of rock and roll, and the model for all that followed (Beatles above all). A mediocre singer, he was, more than anything else, a brilliant marketing gimmick: a white man who not only sang black songs (as Bill Haley had done the year prior), but sang and moved like a black man (in particular copying the style on the stage of Bo Diddley), exuding animalistic sensuality and posing as a rebel hooligan (while in reality it was just a telegenic face).

Born in Tupelo (Mississippi), and arrived in Memphis in 1948, Presley had the sole merit of entering the right studio at the right time. In 1954 Sam Phillips (owner of Sun Records in Memphis), who had smelled the air of change, decided to make him a "black white" (i.e. a white rhythm’n'blues singer), taking advantage of his vocal register as a "shouter "and his aptitude for movement on stage, alongside a respectable rhythm section (Bill Black on bass and Scotty Moore on guitar). The following year the RCA invested a capital to promote it on a national scale, guessing the right moment (the newborn rock and roll and Bill Haley now consumed) and the right character (the ideal star appeal: young, slender, handsome and dynamic). Over the next three years, manager Tom Parker provided him with tailor-made songs and films, and carefully organized the cult of his myth: the Presley hairstyle (the so-called "ducktail" cut), the Presley-style moves, the sideburns, the black leather dress, the "blue suede" shoes. [Finally, in 1977, the RCA advertising machine managed its death by dusting off the old myth, perfectly in line with the revival of the 1950s in vogue in that year].

Elvis Presley was then a social phenomenon. In 1956 his contortions, televised live, scandalized respectable America and represented a clear sign of intolerance and rebellion transmitted by all the young people of the nation to their parents. With Presley the process of identifying teenagers started in the first post-war period came to an end in the 1950s: the idol becomes a myth, the idol influences fashion, the idol acts on an economic sector that is no longer just musical. For the first time, teenagers flocked to record shops to buy millions of copies of their idol's songs and starred in scenes of mass hysteria.

But by 1958 capitalist America had already absorbed him as a consumer myth and moral America had adopted him as a child prodigy. The System demonstrated its eternal and infinite ambiguity.

Beyond the discographic and costume manipulations, Presley was a mediocre singer of romantic ballads, influenced by Italian-American crooners (Dean Martin in particular), opera and gospel, who had made his debut (from 1954 to 1956) as Southern white singer (in theory condemned to the stereotype of country music) who sang the rhythm and blues of blacks: That's All Right Mama by Arthur Crudup, his first single in July 1954; Roy Brown's Good Rockin 'Tonight , 1955; Junior Parker's Mystery Train , the first "number one hit" in September 1955.

In the RCA period, with the "heretical" formation (electric guitars, drums, choir) and a more theatrical and emotional tone of voice, Presley imposed with his clear and powerful phrasing some of the most popular songs of rock and roll. Heartbreak Hotel , a spooky and atmospheric bluesy drawl written by a humble country singer (Mae Axton, Hoyt's mother), released in January 1956, topped the charts on March 10 and held it for two months, becoming, thanks to its desperate lyrics and Presley's self-pitying tone, one of the hymns of the lost generation (and one of the earliest manifestations of "teen angst").

Carl Perkins' Blue Suede Shoes (1956), with Shorty Long on piano, was one of many covers of the period. After a couple of minor hits (including in 1956 a lilting Hound Dog by Leiber & Stoller, which served to impose a more swashbuckling and sarcastic attitude), Don't Be Cruel (by Otis Blackwell, the rockabilly singer from whom Presley was more influenced by), a rhythm & blues with a light and quick rhythm, again with the counterpoint of a choir of male voices, followed it on August 4th and set the record of weeks in first place (eleven), unbeaten until Boyz II Men’s End of The Road in 1992. Presley's singing had become more "breathed" and less tenor, indicating a softer sensitivity than the conventional pop music crooner. Teddy Bear (1957) traced the pattern on the ironic side.

In the spring of 1957, All Shook Up , another Blackwell boogie in which the singer was able to explain the depth of his baritone, and in the autumn, under the pressure of the hits of black rockers, Jailhouse Rock exploded (by Leiber & Stoller), his masterpiece, finally a rowdy boogie with irreverent lyrics, with a "staccato" guitar rhythm by Scotty Moore to underline the slogans shouted by the singer, an instrumental interlude of pandemonium, walking bass and all the typical equipment of black rockers. With that passage Presley consecrated the iconography of the juvenile delinquent and made it acceptable to the general public. In December Don’t closed the series of 'classic' hits. In all, Presley had fourteen consecutive records over one million copies sold.

But Presley had already abandoned the enthralling pieces of Perkins and his companions to instead record harmless sentimental songs, such as the soporific Love Me Tender (September 1956, a melody copied from the theme of the film "Rancho Notorious"), mostly part of the soundtracks of his films, which Parker had him (cunningly) interpret continuously (he would have made 33 in sixteen years).

The cinematographic activity was more and more complementary to the musical one, one feeding the other. Presley continued the tradition of Hollywood stars who also became pop music stars, but he did so in a new context, that of the "teenage idol", that of crowds raving about his every action. His films were autobiographical (or at least consistent with the fictional biography of Presley that Parker was constructing). Each film was an episode in America's most watched soap opera, that of Presley's transition from teenager to man. Parker was able to keep the myth alive even when (1958) Presley was forced into military service (Presley continued to dominate the sales charts even though he was in Germany). His best album, Elvis Presley (1956), was released in this period (but also in this album none of the songs are his).

After his military service (i.e. in 1960) he turned into a languid singer of melodies, all in line with the Broadway musical song (such as Stuck On You (1960), Are You Lonesome Tonight (1960), which was a song from 1927; It's Now Or Never , that is O Sole Mio ; Surrender , 1961, that is Back to Sorrento ; Hugo (Peretti) & Luigi (Creator) 's Can't Help Falling In Love , 1961, which remains the most famous and it is actually Plaisir d'Amour by Giovanni Martini (18th century); Return to Sender by Blackwell) and in a convenient stereotype for cinema set on the beaches. During this period he also recorded his first gospel album, His Hand In Mine (1960), paying homage to a genre that perhaps had always been the true inspiration for his trite pathos.

By the mid-1960s he was earning a million dollars a film, but in the meantime his audience had shrunk to aficionados and pop music listeners. His activity was by now mainly cinematic (the last concert took place in March 1961), however of very bad quality. Thanks to his past, he could still count on the prestige of the international jet set star, which earned him some nostalgic shows for millionaires. Between 1969 and 1970 he abandoned Hollywood and returned to the scene, still reaping delirious successes with increasingly melodramatic ballads (In The Ghetto (1969), Suspicious Mind (1969), Don't Cry Daddy (1969), The Wonder of You (1970), American Trilogy (1971), Burning Love (1972)). In the 1970s Las Vegas became his art base, just as Hollywood had been in the 1960s and Memphis had been in the 1950s. In this, Presley was certainly a more unique than rare character: he managed to leave a legendary imprint in each of the three careers he embarked on. At the same time, however, he continued to record gospel records, of which perhaps the best is the latest, He Touched Me (1972).

His myth was artificially kept alive by an abnormal record production, as well as by an undoubted class of performers. The house where he was born was declared a monument and the street leading to his mansion, "Graceland", was renamed "Elvis Presley Boulevard".

Parker piloted Presley like a robot. For more or less mysterious reasons, Parker never allowed him to tour abroad, didn't allow him to give interviews, didn't allow him to work in arthouse films. The master-slave relationship between the two is worthy of a psychology thesis. His private life, apart from the marriage (which was, however, failed) in 1968, was empty, devoted only to his profession, as well as to alcohol and drugs that inevitably killed him in August 1977.

Ones (RCA, 2002) collects the hits that reached the top of the charts.

Taking advantage of so much psychological restlessness, his fans elected him a permanent member of the rebellion trilogy completed by James Dean and Marlon Brando.

Presley sold over one hundred and fifty million records in all (94 gold singles and 40 gold albums), and post-death he sold even more. Perhaps because it had never really existed: it had been, and remains, only a trademark.

Scotty Moore died in 2016.